Ch 11 - Structure, governance, and ethics

How is the IT department organized?

The organizational structure varies, depending on the organizations size, culture, competitive environment, industry, etc

• All IT systems used in an organization require some form of technical support

• The department of people who support this is referred to as “IT services” or “information systems services”

Senior-level reporting relationships

The web and organization of IT departments

The web has had a significant impact on the organization of IT departments

• Traditionally, the IT department was responsible for designing and maintaining a website, however, this task now belongs to the marketing department

• The marketing department can keep up with branding and control of the website, while IT provides technical support for the website

• Creating a well-designed company website requires knowledge of branding and marketing, plus technical skills

IT architecture

Basic framework for all the computers, systems, and information management that supports organizational services (like a city plan)

• There are usually few standards as companies are diverse

• Usually contains a long document with complicated diagrams, management policies, and discussion of future changes

Enterprise architect

A new title being used to describe a person who manages IT architecture

They:

• Create a blueprint of an organizations information systems and the management of these systems

• Must understand current investments in technology and plan for changes

How information systems supports organizational strategy

Zachman framework for enterprise architecture

Helps in designing IT architecture, and is divided into:

• The 5 reasons for communication

• Stakeholder groups

Alignment

The process of matching organizational objectives with IT architecture

• This is an ongoing process, as fitting IT architecture to business objectives is a continuous challenge

How is alignment measured?

It is measured as the degree to which the IT departments missions, objectives, and plans overlap with the overall business missions, objectives, and plans

• Communication between business and IT executives are the most important indicator of alignment

IS governance

The development of consistent, cohesive, management policies and processes for IT and related services

• The goal is to improve the benefits of an organizations IT investment over time

• Senior business managers are required to make assertions about the controls on IS that will expose them to both financial and criminal penalties

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (USA) and Budget Measures Act (Canada)

Requires management to create internal controls sufficient to produce reliable financial statements and to protect the organizations assets

• Internal controls include the separation of duties and authorities

• Exposes both management and the external audtitor to financial and criminal liability

• Prevents corporate frauds

• Goal is to strengthen and upgrade financial reporting, maintaining and improving trust in public companies’ financial reports

• Ex: The computer-based accounting information system used by the company must have appropriate controls, and management must assert that they do, and the order-processing information system used by the company, which store credit card data and customer identities, must prevent unauthorized people from access

Information systems audit

Examination and verification of a company’s information resources that are used to collect, store, process, and retrieve information, including the organizations IS policies and procedures

• Many firms offer IS audit services

Control objectives for information and related technology (COBIT)

A framework of best practices designed for IT management

Information systems ethics

There are limits to the use of IT and IS, some use of IT is against the law or unethical

• This is not about the hardware or software, but about the people involved in the system

• It is important to understand our own behaviour, and our behaviour should be guided by principles

• Ethical principles include: the United Nations Declaration of Human rights, Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Association of Computing Machinery’s code of ethics

Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) code of ethics

1. Contribute to society and to human well-being, acknowledging that all people are stakeholders in computing

2. Avoid harm

3. Be honest and trustworthy

4. Be fair and take action not to discriminate

5. Respect privacy

Green IT (green computing)

Using IT resources to better support the triple bottom line for organizations

• Considers the effects of choices on people and the environment

The triple bottom line

A framework that goes beyond financial reporting by evaluating an organizations success in 3 key areas:

• Profit (economic performance)

• People (social performance)

• Planet (environmental performance)

Its primary goals is to improve energy efficiency, promote recyclability, and reduce the use of materials that are hazardous to the environment

Energy star program

An international government/industry partnership to produce equipment that meets high-energy efficiency specifications or promotes the use of such equipment

E-cycling

The recycling of electronic computing devices